Garcia eyes second major

Sergio Garcia was decked out in green Tuesday, as he set out for his first U.S. Open practice round at Erin Hills.

Yes, Garcia wears the title of Masters champion quite well. A weight was lifted when he finally captured the major title that eluded him for all those years.

What he’s done in the past does not guarantee success, adulation or even happiness in the future, though. Nobody has learned that lesson in a more public fashion than Garcia himself.

Of his dozens of close calls, failures and embarrassments, a few have come at the U.S. Open — the “torture chamber” of a major, as 1993 PGA champion Paul Azinger called it — a tournament that often brings out the worst in people.

“It’s tough to win, and majors are even tougher,” Garcia said. “And the U.S. Open, we all know how difficult they are.”

Unlike his effervescent introduction to the majors — when he hit the shot from the base of the tree, then ran up the fairway during the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah — Garcia’s first week in genuine contention at a U.S. Open was a sordid, awkward affair.

It was 15 years ago, back in the day of the waggle, when the Spaniard’s pre-shot routine involved dozens of hard-to-watch, back-and-forth motions with his hands as he tried to position himself to swing. He was playing in New York, going against Tiger Woods in the final round. He had complained bitterly earlier in the week about how everything always seemed to be set up to benefit Woods, who was then at the peak of his powers.

Not surprisingly, the overserved fans at Bethpage Black let Garcia have it, heckling him at almost every turn. On Saturday, after someone shouted out “Waggle Boy” during Garcia’s backswing, he pointed to the crowd and challenged the heckler to “be brave” and say it again. It was neither the first, nor the last time he had exacerbated these showdowns with fans. /